frotter

French

Etymology

From Middle French frotter, from Old French froter (“to stroke, wipe, rub”), of uncertain origin. Generally assumed to be from Latin frictāre , present active infinitive of frictō, frequentative of fricō through its past participle frictus (“rubbed”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fʁɔ.te/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

frotter

1. to rub, chafe
2. to scrub, scour
3. to scrape
4. to stone
5. (figurative, informal, pronominal, se frotter) to rub (someone) in the wrong way, to get on (someone)'s bad side

   Ne te frotte pas à elle! Elle a beaucoup d’ennuis.

   Don't get on her bad side! She has a lot of issues.

Conjugation

Conjugation of frotter (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	frotter
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	frottant /fʁɔ.tɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		frotté /fʁɔ.te/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	frotte /fʁɔt/	frottes /fʁɔt/	frotte /fʁɔt/	frottons /fʁɔ.tɔ̃/	frottez /fʁɔ.te/	frottent /fʁɔt/
	imperfect	frottais /fʁɔ.tɛ/	frottais /fʁɔ.tɛ/	frottait /fʁɔ.tɛ/	frottions /fʁɔ.tjɔ̃/	frottiez /fʁɔ.tje/	frottaient /fʁɔ.tɛ/
	past historic2	frottai /fʁɔ.te/	frottas /fʁɔ.ta/	frotta /fʁɔ.ta/	frottâmes /fʁɔ.tam/	frottâtes /fʁɔ.tat/	frottèrent /fʁɔ.tɛʁ/
	future	frotterai /fʁɔ.tʁe/	frotteras /fʁɔ.tʁa/	frottera /fʁɔ.tʁa/	frotterons /fʁɔ.tʁɔ̃/	frotterez /fʁɔ.tʁe/	frotteront /fʁɔ.tʁɔ̃/
	conditional	frotterais /fʁɔ.tʁɛ/	frotterais /fʁɔ.tʁɛ/	frotterait /fʁɔ.tʁɛ/	frotterions /fʁɔ.tə.ʁjɔ̃/	frotteriez /fʁɔ.tə.ʁje/	frotteraient /fʁɔ.tʁɛ/
(compound tenses)	present perfect	present indicative of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle
	past anterior2	past historic of avoir + past participle
	future perfect	future of avoir + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional of avoir + past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il, qu’elle	que nous	que vous	qu’ils, qu’elles
(simple tenses)	present	frotte /fʁɔt/	frottes /fʁɔt/	frotte /fʁɔt/	frottions /fʁɔ.tjɔ̃/	frottiez /fʁɔ.tje/	frottent /fʁɔt/
	imperfect2	frottasse /fʁɔ.tas/	frottasses /fʁɔ.tas/	frottât /fʁɔ.ta/	frottassions /fʁɔ.ta.sjɔ̃/	frottassiez /fʁɔ.ta.sje/	frottassent /fʁɔ.tas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	frotte /fʁɔt/	—	frottons /fʁɔ.tɔ̃/	frottez /fʁɔ.te/	—
compound		—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—
1 The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en.
2 In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way: past historic → present perfect past anterior → pluperfect imperfect subjunctive → present subjunctive pluperfect subjunctive → past subjunctive (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Derived terms

• se frotter les mains

Descendants

• Turkish: fortçu

Further reading

• “frotter”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Norman

Alternative forms

• frottaïr (Guernsey)

Etymology

Probably from Latin frictāre, present active infinitive of frictō, frequentative of fricō through its past participle frictus (“rubbed”).

Pronunciation

• Audio (Jersey):

  (file)

Verb

frotter

1. (Jersey) to rub